Expressive painting and the Malort closed studio (Arno Stern)

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Arno Stern · 1946 · Paris, France

What it is

The Closlieu (from clos, enclosed, and lieu, place) is an enclosed, windowless room. A central palette table holds 18 gouache colours and the walls are lined to take pinned paper. A mixed-age group of about a dozen people paints standing at the walls. The Servant prepares the room, pins paper,…

Format

• Stern describes no treatment phases, no session count and no endpoint. The "framework" is a fixed setting and a fixed session routine, repeated regularly over long periods; continuity is valued, and paintings can be resumed at later sessions. There are no criteria for moving between phases because…
• Group. About a dozen participants of mixed ages, personalities and origins, without competition. Sessions are always collective: Goldberg reports Stern's rule that one should never play alone. Adults may paint alongside children.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: Arno Stern's Closlieu (French; Malort in German) and Play-of-Painting (Jeu de Peindre, Malspiel) as published on arnostern.com and taught in the Arno Stern Training Program now given by André Stern (2026 edition). Gaps are filled from Grabowska (2023), a pedagogy paper drawing on Stern's books, and Goldberg (2025), a field account of a Brazilian Closlieu (IPREDE, Fortaleza).
• Professional frame. No regulated profession exists for this method. The only recognised route is the Arno Stern Training Program, run by Stern's institute (I.R.S.E.-A.S.) and transmitted by André Stern. It is online and live, 79 hours over 5 weekends, taught in French with simultaneous translation, with separate German and Polish programmes. A certificate, issued subject to attendance, entitles the holder to open a…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Dual-relationship strain, and the pull to interpret material you have seen.
• Mixed-up brushes or muddy water will undermine the order the play relies on.
• Competition or comparison creeping in, which the site says the group sets aside.
• Don't offer extensions to steer someone towards "bigger" work. Respond to their request.
• Clients who hope for interpretation or use the studio as a substitute for needed treatment.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.